It is often necessary and desirable to electrically connect one component to another component. For example, a multi-terminal component, such as a connector, is often electrically connected to a substrate, such as a printed circuit board, so that the contacts or terminals of the component are securely attached to contact pads or lined conductive receptacles or the like formed on the substrate to provide an electrical connection therebetween. One preferred technique for securely attaching the component terminals to the contact pads is to use a solder material.
In the electronic equipment and installation industries, an important necessity is the rapid and accurate assembly of leads, terminals and contacts with contact pads or the like associated with printed circuit boards (PCB) and other substrates. For convenience of connecting such elements, it has previously been disclosed to facilitate the soldering of their connection by securing a solder slug or mass to one of the elements so that, when positioned in engagement with the other element and heated, the molten solder will cover the adjacent surfaces of both elements to form when cooled a solder joint providing both a mechanical coupling and an electrical connection between the elements.
One disadvantage of using solder masses is that in some applications the solder masses first have to be formed to have the proper dimensions and then the solder masses have to be coupled to solder-holding elements (e.g., solder clips) before the solder reflow operation is performed. In the case where the solder-holding elements are in the form of a series of claw-like structures formed as part of clips that are spaced along a carrier strip, the claw-like structures are first formed by bending portions of the clip and then one solder mass has to be disposed within one claw-like structure. This can be a time consuming task.
In addition, the electrical connection between one electronic component to another electronic component is many times performed in the field by a skilled technician, especially in certain types of applications. In the field work is many times necessary when installing a computer system in an office or even in a home in some situations since this will permit the technician to carefully and properly trim wires to their proper lengths between establishing an electrical connection between the stripped (shaved) wires and complementary contacts that are associated with an electrical connector that not only makes this connection but also houses the associated electronic components.
For example, one type of connector that is especially common in the computer field and more particularly, that is used in providing an electric connection between one computer component, such as a monitor, and another computer component, such as a hard drive that houses the master controller, etc. With the advent of the Digital Video Disc (DVD) format, manufacturers and users of personal computers are incorporating the ability to playback movies or other recorded material recorded on DVD's via the personal computer. A computer display, unlike an ordinary television, uses a VGA (or similar or equivalent) output signal of the computer. This VGA output signal (“component video”) is typically provided on a multiwire bus that provides separately a red video signal, a green video signal, a blue video signal, a set of vertical synchronizing pulses and a set of horizontal synchronizing pulses. The frame rate (refresh rate) is usually 60 frames per second. VGA does not require any one format (resolution) in terms of pixels per line or lines per frame or refresh rate and thus, a variety of pixels per line and lines per frame are accommodated within the VGA standard.
In a typical “in the field” computer installation application, the technician will determine the location of the monitor as well as locating where the main hardware is located relative to the monitor. A VGA cable is then prepared by measuring a distance of stock cable and then cutting it into a small segment that is customized for the particular application. In order to connect the VGA cable to a VGA connector, the ends of the wires within the VGA cable are cut or skinned so that the sheathing around the wires is removed. The wires are then inserted into the VGA connector such that one wire is in placed into contact with one contact, such as a contact plate, or the like and then the two are securely connected to one another typically be performing a soldering operation. Since the VGA cable can have up to 15 wires, this is a tedious, laborious, and time consuming task since the technician has to individually solder up to 15 wires to their respective contact plates or the like. In addition, the connector body is not especially large so that all of this operation has to take place in a very small area. This further complicates matters for the technician. After the technician makes the connections between the wires and the contact plates which are typically a part of a terminal block, the technician then assembles a protective housing around the terminal block. This adds additional time.
Accordingly, it is desirable is a connector that provides an improved means for fixing the conductive wires relative to the contacts without the need for the use of solder material and offers a reduction in the time needed to complete this task.